Mr. Seward to Mr. Murphy.
Sir: Your despatch of April 8 (No. 35) has been received, together with the shipper’s receipt for seventy-nine packages, shipped in the Hamburg steamer Hammonia, consigned to the honorable, the Secretary of War. I learn from your note that the consignment covers 13,000 pounds of linen and lint, and that this is only an instalment of supplies contributed by Germans, most of whom reside within your consular district for the relief of wounded soldiers in the army of the United States.
Having lost no time in transferring the receipt to the hands of the Secretary of War, I am directed by the President to acknowledge, in behalf of the American people, a gift which could not be overvalued, even if it were to be regarded as proceeding from the simple motive of Christian charity. The contribution comes opportunely to us, however, as a token of the sympathy of our German brethren with the cause of the American Union, one of whose aspirations it has been, and yet is, to offer an asylum to the exile and the oppressed of all nations.
We think ourselves authorized also to regard the gift as a contribution of the German people to the cause of impartial freedom, which, by means of this painful civil war, has become identified with the cause of the American Union.
You will make these acknowledgments known to the donors in some manner which will be respectful to the government of the free city of Frankfort.
I am, sir, your most obedient servant,
W. W. Murphy, Esq., U. S. Consul General, Frankfort.